Posting this here per suggestion of obezag from the Anki Discord Server, who was kind enough to help me troubleshoot my issues!
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
After updating to 26.9, I am experiencing significant lag with running Anki. I am on a Macbook and using the Silicon release. The desktop app itself takes much longer to open up and there is lag between cards. I disabled any Add-Ons that may cause lag and faced the same issues.
Describe the solution you’d like
Please reduce the lag to pre-26.9 levels.
Describe alternatives you’ve considered
I have temporarily downgraded to 26.8 to review my cards, as the amount of lag made Anki unusable.
Thank you the Ankitect team for their hard work with the update.
Please try everything in the Troubleshooting Checklist, including the things you think aren’t relevant. So, not just some add-ons, all add-ons.
When you reply back about how that went –
What version were you using before that was working better? Is that the same version you’ve reverted to now?
Go to Help/Anki > About – click Copy Debug Info – paste that entire result here.
Is the lag on the study screen happening on all cards, or just cards from certain note types, or with cards displaying certain things (like math notation, images, internet hosted pages/files, etc.)?
If you’re not sure, add a very simple note in the default Basic note type (or use some simple notes/cards you already have), and see if you see the same behavior.
I have not seen the described behavior, Anki 26.09, macOS Golden Gate 27.0, M1 Mac mini.
I haven’t noticed any slower opening times or lag between cards while studying. However, I note that my deck is somewhat small, with 2,800 cards.
Please disable all add-ons while you troubleshoot this issue, to rule out the possibility that a seemingly-unrelated add-on is causing or contributing to the issue.
Edit: Added:
Could you please provide some background information:
I have done all of the troubleshooting and even tried updating my Mac, but since I downloaded the new Silicone Anki, it has been really slow and laggy, and everything takes forever to show up or load. I tried to redownload the old version, but for whatever reason I couldnt. I’m just mildly frustrated and don’t know what to do. I want Anki back!
Since updating to the latest version of Anki on my Mac, I am experiencing severe startup lag.
Whenever I open Anki, it takes a very long time to load. Initially, I just get a blank white screen, then two black bars appear, and only after quite a while do my decks finally show up. Once it’s running, it gets a bit better during use, but the cold start is painfully slow compared to the previous version.
What I have already tried (from the troubleshooting guide):
Checked and repaired the database (Tools > Check Database – it found and fixed some issues, but the startup delay remains).
Started Anki in safe mode (holding the Shift key to disable all add-ons).
Changed the graphics driver settings (tried Metal, OpenGL, and forced software rendering via config/terminal).
Completely uninstalled and reinstalled the application multiple times.
Reset/cleared configuration and cache files.
None of these steps resolved the slow startup and the white screen issue.
Is there a known bug with the latest version on macOS, or is there anything else I can do to fix this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
For any Mac user who is experiencing delays or hangs when launching and/or using the Anki app:
Please provide this information, if you haven’t already:
What is the model of your Mac computer?
What version of macOS are you running?
What is the exact version of Anki you are running?
Could you please provide a rough estimate of how many cards you have in your collection? (I’m wondering if the amount of delay might be related to the size of the collection.)
Could you please provide a rough estimate of how many seconds/minutes it takes for the Anki app to launch?
I note that 2 people who are seeing these symptoms are running macOS Tahoe 26.5.2. However, I don’t know whether this fact is significant or if it might be just coincidence.
In any case, if you are running a version of macOS which has a newer update available, you might want to consider updating the OS. Even if it might not fix this particular issue, updating your OS will provide you with the latest security fixes. (For 26.5.2 users, I see that 26.7 is the latest version of Tahoe available.)
Edit: Added:
And, please try using the newly-released Anki 26.09.2 version instead. I’m not sure if it will make a difference for this issue, but for consistency it would be good to have everyone running the same/latest Anki version.
Thanks for all of the feedback and suggestions. I have temporarily downgraded to 26.8 which has been running fine for now, and was the version I was using previously. Lag from the cards was across all card types. I’ll try out the full troubleshooting log in the next day or two. To answer the other questions posed in the meantime:
What is the model of your Mac computer? M2 MacBook Air, 2022. 8GB RAM (unsure if this is relevant).
What version of macOS are you running? macOS Tahoe 26.2. I will be updating to 27 tonight before redownloading Anki.
What is the exact version of Anki you are running? I was previously running 26.9—I got the latest download from the Anki website.
Could you please provide a rough estimate of how many cards you have in your collection? (I’m wondering if the amount of delay might be related to the size of the collection.). I’m unsure how to count this. Googling this sends me to counting the number of cards in a given deck. I use the AnKing MCAT deck along with some other personal decks, so I imagine I have more than 2,800 cards.
I recall seeing the same white screen Greta.1102 described in their post.
I already tried turning off all my addons and deleting previous versions. But, ever since I updated on my mac it has been so slow. However, It works fine on my phone. What should I do? I wish I hadn’t updated yet…
One person who experienced this issue reported that downgrading back to Anki 26.08 allowed them to use Anki again without being affected by this problem.
Anyone else experiencing this issue might want to try downgrading to Anki versions either 26.08 or 26.08.1 to see if it helps them as well. (Downgrading would be a temporary workaround, until the issue can be identified and resolved.)
–
For people who see a white screen symptom, is it the entire monitor screen that is white? Or, is it just the smaller Anki app window that is entirely white?
I have emailed with no response and submitted a ticket. Anki is continuing to lag after the update. I’ve deleted and gone back to a previous version. The lag is still there. I deleted that version, updated to the new version again, and nothing seems to work. If I could get someone to help me in a timely manner, that would be great.
Apple M2 with Golden gate 27.0. Originally using 26.08.1, updated to 26.09.2 problem began and reverted back 26.08.1 problem still persisted and now back on 26.09.2 and still have the issue